Abby Senior Wins Girls Sevens

VANCOUVER - Abbotsford Senior Secondary lifted their second BC Rugby High School Girls Provincial Sevens title in three years on Saturday, running in five tries to defeat Shawnigan Lake School 33-5 in the Cup Final at UBC. Two other Abbotsford Schools finished in the top 5 with Bateman at 4 and Yale at 5. Robert Bateman was the lone Abbotsford boys' school in the tournament and finished 3rd. Congratulations to our local teams!

Paced by two tries from speedster Amara Lowrie, Abbotsford defeated Shawnigan, a team they had lost 34-7 to in the pool rounds on Friday. Abbotsford downed Elgin Park 20-7 in the quarterfinals before defeating number one overall seed Robert Bateman 19-5 in the semis.

“Psychologically we had overcome a major hurdle in beating Bateman earlier and that really lifted the team,” said Abbotsford head coach Steph Doan. “The players came out in the final and seized their opportunities. There was some stellar tackling and our defensive alignment was great.”

Shawnigan scored the opening try through speedster Kira Wimbert to take an early 5-0 lead but were unable to produce any more offence.

Lowrie ran in Abbotsford’s first try and Tausani Levale converted and then ran in her own try minutes later for a 12-5 lead. Abbotsford were relentless on their defence and scored their next try through an intercept with Gurpreet Dhaliwal going over for the score. Tausani’s sister Nakisa was next to score a try before Lowrie ran in the fifth and final try. Tausani Levale notched four conversions to round out the 33-7 scoreline.

Abbotsford’s Cup Final performance was nearly a repeat of the 2012 final when they shocked Carson Graham 37-0 at UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium.

The consolation final featured top-seeded Bateman who were unable to recover from a slow start, eventually going down 20-7 to GP Vanier. Fraser Valley teams took home several pieces of hardware as Yale were crowned Plate champions after a 26-15 win over Elgin Park for 5th place. Williams Lake outfit Lake City took home the Bowl (9th) with a 22-7 final over Stelly’s. The Shield (13th) went to McMath who downed Elgin Park-2 25-5.

Boys TournamentVANCOUVER, BC - St. George’s School repeated as BC Rugby Boys High School Provincial Sevens champions on Sunday afternoon, defeating Lord Byng by a score of 38-7 in the Cup Final. The Provincial Championships, presented by Avison Young and Thorsteinssons LLP Tax Lawyers, featured seven tries in an all-Vancouver final.

Saints speedster Theo Sauder stole the show, recording a hat trick of tries in a dominant performance. St. George’s led 12-0 at the half through a try from Phil Berna and a converted score from Sauder.

Byng would run in their only try just after the break through speedster Luke Boucher, who converted his own score. But Sauder took away Byng’s momentum as he responded off the ensuing kick off by running half the field for a try and then adding on the conversion.

Jayden Bloom was next for Saints to go over before Sauder sliced through the defence for his third tally. Sauder added a pair of conversions for the 33-7 lead. The final play of the game saw Saints’ big man Cathal Long barrel over for a score down the wing to wrap up the final 38-7.

Each scorer on Saint George’s lineup had featured for the BC Elite Youth Sevens program this year and Sauder had already been selected for a previous tour with the Maple Leafs, Rugby Canada’s development Sevens program.

“The difference, from what I saw, was our defence,” said Saint George’s head coach Mike Stiles. “Our goal was to defend our title and through our commitment to our offensive and defensive structures that sevens coach Pat Palmer has been using, we were able to do that.”

“I thought Theo was a great Captain throughout the tournament and said the right things as a leader,” said Stiles when asked about his star player. “But his supporting players really stepped up and rose to the occasion.”

Saints went 3-0 in pool play before downing West Van 50-0 in the Cup semifinals. Byng had an impressive tournament and had defeated Robert Bateman 35-7 in the semifinals.

Robert Bateman went on win third place with a 33-12 win over West Van. The Plate (5th) went to Cowichan as they downed North Shore school Argyle in the placement rounds. Lord Tweedsmuir produced a four-try performance to defeat Handsworth 20-5 in the Bowl Final (9th).

“The field was very competitive this year,” said Stiles, who also served as tournament director. “The purpose of this tournament is geared towards development and to see a team like Lord Tweedsmuir come in ranked 15th and take home some hardware - that’s what this is all about.”

The Shield (13th) was lifted by Carson Graham who defeated Elgin Park 24-0.